Teach Engineering
Solar Water: Heat it Up!
Young engineers are instructed to design and build their own solar water heaters. Then, they calculate the efficiency and cost and compare them to commercially available models. This is a full unit for pupils to apply their knowledge.
Curated OER
Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies
Transform your class into a butterfly museum! Research different types of butterflies, their habitat, and life cycle. Interactive components such as PowerPoint presentations, Claymation movies, and webpages add pizzaz to the museum...
DiscoverE
Design a Shoe
Engage young scientists in a project where high fashion meets engineering! Using foam core and hot glue, partnered pupils design and create a functional, fashionable pair of shoes. Groups then put the footwear through its paces using a...
DiscoverE
Build a Watershed
What's the best way to learn how watersheds work? Build one! Combining engineering, the water cycle, and ecology concerns, the activity is the perfect fit for an interdisciplinary unit. Teams construct a model watershed with simple...
Teach Engineering
Engineers Love Pizza, Too!
Help overcome challenges in eating pizza. Scholars work in groups to design a device that assists a physically handicapped person eat pizza. They build a prototype of such a device to test their designs before building. To...
Teach Engineering
Cellular Respiration and Bioremediation
You can breathe easily now that you've found a winning resource. Young biologists learn about the process of cellular respiration, primarily through teacher-led discussion and instruction. They also consider the concept of...
Teach Engineering
Electricity and Magnetic Fields
Introduce your class to the idea of magnetic fields around electrical wires with an activity that provides the information about the direction of a magnetic field around a wire carrying an electric current.
Teach Engineering
Organic Solar Energy and Berries
You can eat a solar cell? A unit on solar energy begins with a discussion about organic solar cells, followed by directions on how to build your own. After following the teacher's directions to build an anthocyanin...
Curated OER
Transportation and Environment
Students make an eco-friendly vehicle to help make transportation better for the environment. In this transportation lesson, students learn how transportation inventions are bad for the environment. They then see how engineers have tried...
Perkins School for the Blind
Identifying and Using Tools
How can you teach a person about technology and engineering if he has never been exposed to the tools and devices used to create and construct? Learners with visual impairments examine a number of common tools, such as hammers, wrenches,...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Tennis Anyone?
After reading up on the history of sports racquets, engineering teams design and construct a racquet for batting a Velcro-striped ball at a target. Teams evaluate their design by aiming for the target three times each and answering...
North Carolina State University
Pipe Cleaner Towers
Small groups work together to create a tower out of 15 pipe cleaners under a set of imposed limitations. First, restrict team members to use only one arm, and then remove the use of spoken language. There is also a time limit. The...
California Department of Education
Possible Careers
Is a STEM career the right choice for me? Lesson four in a six-part career and college readiness series introduces seventh graders to the world of STEM occupations. Individuals use their Holland code results to select, research, and...
Teach Engineering
DNA Forensics and Color Pigments
Use food coloring in electrophoresis. The last segment in a four-part series mimics DNA fingerprinting by using chromatography. Teams conduct chromatography on food coloring to find colors that use similar pigmentation in their makeup.
Curated OER
Space Age Technology Comes to Earth
Both GPS and GIS are now used regularly in agricultural careers. Explore the new technologies that require higher education for those interested in agri-science careers. Upper graders examine how agriculturalists use new technologies by...
Code.org
Bytes and File Sizes
A bite of bits. The first lesson in a unit of 15 introduces the class to the byte. Pupils learn about other standard units for measuring file sizes, develop an understanding of relative sizes and the kind of units used to measure...
Curated OER
Constructions and Creations: Sturdy Structures
Have your class draw the plans and design a structure. Learners discuss and investigate the variables in the stability of a 2D and 3D model. They also consider how to add a circuit to the design. Afterwards, they present their work.
TryEngineering
Search Engines
Learn how to find things quickly and efficiently on the Internet. The lesson teaches how search engines work and how to efficiently use them. It includes an activity where groups develop search queries to find sites using given criteria.
National Energy Education Development Project
Exploring Hybrid School Bus Technology
The color School Bus Yellow was created in 1939 because science had proven peripheral vision detects yellow 1.24 times faster than other colors. Young scientists explore modern school bus transportation options and then discuss the...
Curated OER
Looking At Science And Technology From a Human Rights Perspective
Students answer discussion questions and analyze technological innovations, scientific discoveries, and environmental crises from a human rights perspective. They research and report back to the class about a related topic.
Curated OER
Simple Internet Searching Lesson 2
Learn how to use search engines and keywords! Learners evaluate the information process using given criteria and determine ways in which the process may be improved.
Curated OER
Aerospace Engineering
Students are introduced to aviation history and aerospace engineering achievements. They assemble a class aviation history timeline from individual student research on people and events.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Shake it up with Seismographs!
Shake things up in your STEM or earth science classroom when you have small groups construct their own seismographs. A reading assignment on the history of seismographs, the Richter scale, and current technology sets the stage for the...
Teach Engineering
Extinction Prevention via Engineering
It's time to save endangered species through engineering. The third lesson in a nine-part Life Science unit has young environmentalists study species extinction. An engaging discussion leads to some ideas on how to use engineering design...